This next article shows just how unexpected and potentially easy it can be for viruses to recombine to form a new virus, even when these viruses are being used in vaccines.

This experienced has occurred here in Australia and has affected chickens.

Scientists have found that 2 virus strains used to vaccinate chickens in Australia may have recombined to form a virus that is sickening and killing the animals. "This shows that recombination of such strains can happen, and people need to think about it," says Glenn Browning, a veterinary microbiologist at the University of Melbourne, Parkville in Australia and one of the co-authors on the paper.

Chickens worldwide are susceptible to a group of herpesviruses called ILTV, which target their upper respiratory tract. The resulting disease, called infectious laryngotracheitis, reduces egg production and can kill up to 1/5th of those infected. "The birds effectively choke to death on blood and mucus," says Browning. The disease is not known to infect any animals other than chickens and chicken-like birds.

To combat ILTV, farmers vaccinate their chickens with attenuated herpesviruses that can still infect and replicate but do not lead to disease. Australia has used 2 vaccines, which are produced by Pfizer and called SA2 and A20. In 2006, however, the country purchased a new vaccine from the European company Intervet called Serva. 2 years later, new strains of ILTV, called class 8 and 9, appeared. They are just as deadly as other strains. "But they seem to be dominating over the strains that were reported prior to 2007," says Browning.

Because the new strains appeared shortly after the European vaccine was introduced, scientists thought that the new vaccine strain might have reverted back to a disease-causing form. But when the researchers sequenced the genomes of the 2 new strains and the 3 vaccine strains, they found that the new viruses were actually stitched together from the European and Australian vaccines. Although it is not clear what mutations keep the vaccine strains from causing disease in the 1st place, they were probably lost when the viruses recombined, says Browning, whose team reports its findings online today [12 Jul 2012] in Science.

We recently reported that India had reported a fresh outbreak of H5N1.

Now it would appear that attempts to control this outbreak havent been successful and are causing further significant culling of huge numbers or birds.

Indian bird flu outbreak worsens

Avian Influenza Outbreak

The first officially acknowledged outbreak of avian influenza in India’s Bangalore region is forcing the animal husbandry department to take unprecedented stringent measures around the Central Poultry Development Organisation & Training Institute (CPDOTI) in Hesaraghatta, where the outbreak began.

Following the culling of 4,265 turkeys last week after the initial outbreak, the state’s animal husbandry department announced the deaths of 206 chickens and 17 ducks suspected to be due to avian influenza at CPDOTI. In response, the department is now planning to cull 19,235 chickens, 13,673 ducks and 369 emus. 52 poultry sheds have also been listed for cleaning and sanitation work to prevent any possible spread of the disease.

During the current epidemic of the influenza season is very similar to that recorded in Ukraine in 2009-2010, when the dominating scale flu epidemic, reported physician-immunologist, President of the "Immune Shield nation" Natalia Vinnik.

"This epidemiological season expected in Ukraine two waves of flu. According to various sources, the first of them will come in late November - early December, and another one - in January. This will be a sharp rise in the incidence of influenza," - said Winnick.

A police acadamy has been closed due to two confirmed cases of flu, but no mention is made of the strain, however the two positive cases have been isolated at home and not in hospital, which suggests a cautionary approach to contain this strain in an early stage, which could point to possible H1N1 fears.

Below is the google translation with the Spannish removed

SIERRA GRANDE (ASG). - There alert the police academy "Sergeant Salinas Sunday" because it was found that two of the four samples taken in students, no influenza A. Since Friday classes are suspended.

Commissioner Gustavo Cuevas, director of the institute, said he is confirming that two cases were positive "a mild flu," according to reports from Viedma.

To determine which type of flu is, and for accuracy analyzes were sent to Buenos Aires. For now applied medication and fast tracking.

According to the commissioner, the two students who tested positive are in their home with medical monitoring "have evolved well. We followed all the students alerting them of the situation," said Cuevas.

It appears that the flu is rapidly gaining momentum in the US which this next report appears to be reflecting.

Flu cases confirmed in Staunton-Augusta-Waynesboro area

The Central Shenandoah Health District has received a few dozen reports of confirmed influenza cases from the area.

Although many more cases than that have been reported, not all have been confirmed with a test that checks for the virus’s DNA, said Carla Galbreath, nurse epidemiologist with the district. Augusta Health has had 65 confirmed cases, according to spokeswoman Lisa Schwenk.

H1N1 is again in the news, this time back in India where it has sadly claimed another life.

H1N1 death amid dengue control

Fri Nov 02 2012, 01:40 hrs

Even as the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) health authorities identified 344 mosquito breeding sites on Thursday as part of its wardwise container survey, another swine flu (H1N1 virus) death reported from the city has the civic body stepping up surveillance measures.

From the World Health Organization of Europe there is news of the resumption of use of some of the temporarily suspended vaccines manufactured by Novartis.

Use of Novartis’ influenza vaccines resumed in some countries01-11-2012The use of several batches of influenza vaccines manufactured by Novartis is being resumed in some countries that had temporarily suspended them pending further analysis of protein aggregates found in the vaccines.

The temporary suspension of Agrippal, Agriflu and Fluad has been lifted in Canada and Switzerland, following review by national regulatory authorities. The outcomes of internal reviews and risk assessments indicated that the observed aggregates are not external contamination, but integral constituents of the product. Protein aggregates are not uncommon during the production of the vaccine. WHO will provide further updates as the situation evolves.

Back in Vietnam the smuggling of poultry across their borders is again being identified as a serious problem with the rapid spread of newer and deadlier strains of H5N1 Avian Influenza that continue to mutate.

Smuggled poultry worsens avian flu situation: officials

Veterinary workers vaccinate a chicken against the H5N1 flu virus

Amidst concerns about the H5N1 avian flu that has spread to 32 provinces and cities, the uncontrolled smuggling of poultry form China into Vietnam has worsened the situation, say many officials.

Speaking at yesterday’s conference on combating epidemics and controlling the trade of cattle and poultry, held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) in Khanh Hoa province, Pham Van Dong, head of the Veterinary Department, blamed the cross-border smuggling of poultry from China for the increasing spread of avian flu.

Illegally transporting poultry without quarantine or quality certification from China into Lang Son and Quang Ninh provinces has increased the seriousness of the avian flu situation, in which new and more dangerous virus strains have appeared.

Summary, week 42/2012Influenza activity is at low levels in all countries in the WHO European Region, with only few reporting sporadic influenza detections. All of the 14 countries that have established epidemic thresholds reported consultation rates for influenza-like illness (ILI) and/or acute respiratory infection (ARI) that were below their thresholds. The number of severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) cases detected through hospital surveillance was similar to that in the previous week, and none of the specimens tested was positive for influenza.

For a description of influenza surveillance in the WHO European Region. See below.

Virological surveillance for influenza

Overall, a total of 40 specimens tested positive for influenza in week 42/2012: 29 were influenza A and 11 were influenza B. Of the 29 influenza A, 16 were not subtyped, 9 were A(H3) and 4 A(H1)pdm09 (Fig. 1).

There are new reports indicating that there have been a number of H1N1 cases detected in Saudi Arabia.

According to Xinhua News Agency reported: Saudi Arabia, according to media reports, at a hospital in the Saudi capital of Riyadh's new found eight cases of Influenza A H1N1 influenza. Currently, the hospital confinement measures have been taken to prevent the spread of the epidemic.

Saudi Arab News newspaper reported that the patient was found in a hospital called (??)including two in-patients and six medical staff. In addition, the hospital also found that 27 suspected cases, including four nurses. At present, they have been isolated.

In another report news has emerged that there has been another case of the new coronavirus detected in Riyadh, the capitol of Saudi Arabia and again where all the previous cases have been detected.

There is still no news on any successes being made with identifying the resevour for this new bug as yet.

A Saudi citizen in the capital Riyadh is the world's third confirmed case of a newly discovered SARS-related virus but he has now recovered from his illness, the official Saudi Press Agency reported on Sunday. The potentially deadly novel coronavirus is from the same family as SARS but had only been confirmed in two previous cases: a 60-year-old Saudi man who died earlier this year, and a man from Qatar who was treated in a London hospital. Saudi authorities conducted tests on the new case in the Health Ministry and then sent abroad a sample which tested positive, the agency said, citing a statement from the ministry. "The patient received the appropriate treatment and has recovered," the agency quoted the ministry as stating, adding that the man had not left Riyadh.

Four cases of H1N1 have been reported in Coimbatore since Wednesday. While two cases were registered in a private hospital, one case was admitted in the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) and one was house quarantined since he was not in critical condition. On Wednesday, two cases of H1N1 were registered at G Kuppusamy Naidu Memorial hospital.

Malaysia is also reporting some small numbers of H1N1 Swine flu since the end of October.

Its notable that this flu strain seems to be persisting across a very wide portion of the globe and if it continues to spread, even slowly as it seems to be at present, one must wonder if we havent dropped our guard down with this bug and might yet see it re-emerge to achieve pandemic levels again as it did in 2009.

Kota Kinabalu: Six cases of Influenza A (H1N1) have been detected in Sabah with the latest in Penampang on Oct. 30, said Deputy Health Minister Datuk Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin.

However, she called on the public not to panic because the situation was actually under control. There were no deaths.

Speaking after officiating at the Food Safety Campaign Carnival at Suria Sabah, Saturday, she said what was important was for the public to continue prioritising personal hygiene.

As of Oct 31, she said four cases had been detected in Penampang and one each in Lahad Datu and the State Capital.

H5N1 Avian Influenza is again becoming problematic this season in Bangladesh, where it is seriously impacting on the number of poultry farms able to remain productive.

Department of Livestock Services (DLS) culled more than 4000 poultry birds as the avian influenza has started to inject the local poultry farms in onset of winter, said officials. DLS control room said last week it destroyed the chickens at a poultry farm of Kapashia in Gazipur district to stall the spread of bid flu virus. Bird flu or virus H5N1 usually breaks out in the beginning of winter and summer seasons, said poultry farm owners. Poultry industry leaders feared if the deadly virus spreads like last year, many of the remaining farms will be out of business in coming days. Meanwhile, the number of farms has now come down to 60,824 from 114,763 about two years ago following the havoc created by bird flu attack, according to Bangladesh Poultry Khamar Rakkha Jatiya Parishad.

Pakistan has reported the fatality of a 21 year old man from a H3 type influenza.

From the article linked here it appears that the hospital in question did not have any flu vaccine which might have saved this poor life had it been available.

RAWALPINDI, Nov 2: The death of a young man from Influenza AH3 virus has set the alarm bells ringing for the city health department.

Mohammad Shahbaz, 21, brought to Holy Family Hospital (HFH) on October 25 from Talagang, Chakwal, died on October 30. His blood samples were sent to the National Institute of Health (NIH) the same day which confirmed the presence of the virus in his body on Friday.

While this next article isnt directly related to the core purpose of this thread, at this time with the ramping up of the US elections and the fanfare that surrounds this event, it might be a good time to think about whether this type of political monetary support from some of the industrial giants is actually of benefit and if so then primarily, to whom?

Most people would agree that this really is a self serving practise that often impedes on the best interests of the wider community, and usually serves more or less as a form of bearing unwanted pressures on to our law makers and those whom we rely on to make the best decisions they can on our behalf, but become entangled in conflicts that originate with these practices.

Perhaps its time to ask if this type of practise has enough credibility for it to continue.

Miriam and Sheldon Adelson have donated millions of dollars to political action committees this election season.

A slow economy has not stopped the biomedical industry from spending big on US elections this year. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan group that analyzes political spending, the health sector — which includes the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, health insurance providers, hospitals and organizations representing heath care professionals — has so far poured more than US$193 million into campaign coffers and political action committees (PACs) in hopes of influencing the 6 November vote.

The record breaking figure is roughly 9% greater than the amount spent by the health sector during the 2008 election that swept US President Barack Obama into the White House. Overall, the sector ranks fifth in spending out of thirteen industry sectors that are monitored by the Washington DC based center.

Back on the 16th of October we reported on a new outbreak of H5N1 in poultry in Nepal.

Today we have news also from Nepal of an outbreak of H1N1 Swine flu in 38 people there.

From the article, one gets the impression that the local medicos might be a little too casual in their approach to this outbreak.

38 Nepalese patients suffer from swine flu within week of outbreak

English.news.cn 2012-10-11 07:29:10

KATHAMANDU, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Within a week of the outbreak of Swine Flu virus with influenza A and B called (H1N1) in Nepal, more than 38 patients have been affected by the virus, doctors said.

"We have been able to confirm as many as 38 persons caught with swine flu virus spread in the Kathmandu Valley," Dr Arjun Pant, senior pediatrician at the Shahid Sukraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital.

According to the hospital, among 172 patients undergone blood tests at the hospital, 118 people were infected with influenza A while, 38 with influenza B. But doctors at the hospital said there is no need to panic about the virus.

There could be any number of causes for such an event, hopefully it wont be any influenza illnesses, but a careful watch for the reason for this mass die off is warranted.

More than five hundred pigeons suddenly dropped dead at a village in Bihar's Bhagalpur district over the last four days, causing residents, some of them pigeon-keepers, to fear that something was amiss. District officials are still to visit the site and conduct an inquiry. Over 500 pigeons died mysteriously in Bath village near Sultanganj in Bhagalpur, about 250 km from the state capital.